


Soulmate AU

by Hereshowitgoesoncewewin



Category: Newsies, newsies the musical
Genre: F/F, M/M
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-09-30
Updated: 2017-09-30
Packaged: 2019-01-07 04:19:29
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 7
Words: 7,809
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12225621
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Hereshowitgoesoncewewin/pseuds/Hereshowitgoesoncewewin
Summary: During puberty, you and your soulmate begin to share what you write in your skin. Whatever is written in your soulmates skin appears on yours. But people develop this ability at different stages of their life.





	1. Chapter one

Everyone was given the soulmate talk when they got into year 6, and then every year afterwards they were given another talk on soulmates, although the content never varied very much from the original talk.  
Race was sat at the back of the classroom, staring at the writing on the palm of his hand, “eggs, butter, milk, coffee, sugar”, as the teacher was explaining the marks to everyone as if they hadn’t heard it every year for the past 6 years.   
“starting from the age of around 10, so when you are in year 6, people start to see marks and words written on their skin that they did not put there, that is because, whatever is written on your soulmates skin will automatically come up on your skin. However, people develop this ability at different stages in life, which is why we start so young, despite the fact that the average age is 14. So, you may see marks that your soulmate has drawn on themselves, but your soulmate may not be able to see marks that you have drawn on yourself”  
Race knew for a fact that that was true. He started to see the marks at 13, 4 years ago, and as soon as the words “page 202, green book, due tuesday” appeared on his arm, he immediately wrote back “which subject?”, although he got no reply. Every day since then, when he sees a new sentence form (which happens quite often, his soulmate clearly doesn’t own any paper) he’d reply and wait for an answer, although one hasn’t come yet.   
He’d heard of people who had never developed the ability to see their marks, and although that was rare, he couldn’t help but be nervous of the thought that his soulmate might never see their marks, causing them to never meet. He knew it was silly, his friend Albert, for example, can’t see his marks yet, there’s nothing to worry about.   
At the end of the lesson, he made his way over to the table where he and his friends always sit, and saw Jack, Katherine, Albert, and Specs already sat there. As he approached he heard the topic of the conversation was soulmates marks, hardly surprising seeing as though they had all just had pretty much the same lecture.   
He sat down as Jack was midway through complaining that his soulmate never seems to write on themselves -  
“I mean, everyone writes little notes to themselves now and again, but no, apparently mine just seems to accidentally get lines all over themselves while writing or something”  
“Jack, relax, their probably just organised, and can’t see the marks yet, they’ll start soon enough” Katherine reasoned, easy for her, her and her soulmate exchanged numbers last year and have been texting ever since, and although she lives a few hours away, her brother Davey is changing colleges and is moving to the college that they currently attend, giving her a reason to come and visit Katherine as often as she likes. The only reason that they haven’t met yet is because Sarah (Katherine’s soulmate) is too scared to come out to her parents as she is 95% sure they wont agree with it. But because of the biggest coincidence they could’ve hoped, they will get the chance to meet and probably live happily ever after, afterall, that’s the whole point of these soulmate things, to make sure no one is left alone or in an unhappy relationship.  
“Didn’t you promise Sarah that we’d talk to Davey and make sure he’s settled in and everything?” Specs asked, knowing that Race doesn’t like talking about soulmates as his is yet to know about him.   
“Yeah, Sarah said he’s pretty cool although he might be a bit nervous and quiet for a few days but once you get to know him, he doesn’t stop talking” Katherine explained.  
“Bit like Albert then” “Hey! I stop talking sometimes”  
“Albert, just last night you spent 3 hours on facetime to me talking about aliens” Race interjected.  
“But just think about it, the universe is ever expanding, and there’s billions of planets we don’t even know exist, aliens have to exist somewhere, and just because we-”  
“see what I mean” Race said, making everyone at the table laugh, while Albert blushed slightly and went back to eating his lunch.


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Spot is angsty and Romeo's got a date

Spot didn’t like the idea of soulmates. He hated that there was one person who has already been chosen for him for the rest of his life and that he had no control over it. Ok, yes, of course you can date people who aren’t your soulmate, in fact, its quite a popular thing to do amongst people who don’t develop the ability until their late teens. But can you really date someone who could leave you the minute they find a mark? How can you commit to someone when you already know that they are not who you’ll end up with?  
This is the reason why Spot has never had a relationship. Or it’s what he tells himself anyway. He tries to ignore the voice inside his head that’s telling him it’s because he’s unlovable, and that’s why he can’t see the marks yet, he doesn’t have a soulmate. So far, no one has ever heard of anyone who doesn’t have a soulmate, only that they can’t see the marks. But it’s never too late to be first, right?  
Every time he writes something on his arm, a shopping list, his homework, or just doodles, he tries to forget that someone, somewhere, might be seeing those same words come up in the same spot on their own skin. He pushed that thought aside while he was writing his shopping list on the palm of his hand of what to remember as he stopped by the shop on way home, “Eggs, butter, milk, coffee, sugar”.   
As he was walking out of college, Romeo, someone who likes to call Spot a friend, but who Spot would call someone he tolerates the company of, ran to catch up to him.   
“Hey Spot, guess what?” Romeo was smiling so widely it reminded Spot of that cat in Alice in Wonderland, what was it called again? The Cheshire cat?   
“What?” Spot sighed, hoping it was something meaningless and that he could just go home already, it had been a long day full of talk about soulmates and he just wanted it to end.  
“I can see the marks”  
“Sorry, what?” Spot had been too engrossed in thinking about what he was going to do when he got home that he completely forgot he was supposed to be having a conversation.   
“My soulmate, I can see the marks on my skin! I don’t know if he can see them yet because he hasn’t replied but i’m gonna keep trying” Romeo was almost jumping, why was he so happy? It’s not that big of a thing, not to Spot anyway, regardless, Spot was just happy that Romeo has a chance of finding someone to be with, wait, maybe Spot does think of him as a friend?   
“How do you know it’s a he?” Soulmates aren’t exactly considerate of what you think your sexuality is, loads of people have found out that their soulmates are girls and not boys and vice versa. The only soulmate stories Spot likes reading is when two homophobic men are soulmates or two women. They usually end up alone and miserable, serves them right for being so closed minded and not accepting people for who they are.  
“Well I know i’m gay, that’s for certain, so if it’s a girl, i’m doomed. And they just give off a manly vibe, you know what I mean?”   
“no”  
“well, doesn’t matter, I know they’ve got to be a man. Anyway, I gotta go home and see if my soulmate’s replied, see you tomorrow” Romeo practically skipped off, still smiling wider than Spot thought possible, leaving Spot to continue his walk home, not to forget his detour to the shop.

All Romeo could think about while he was walking home was what his soulmate would look like. Blond or Brunette? Tall or short? Introvert or extrovert? But no matter how hard he tried, he couldn’t picture the perfect person. No combination of traits seemed to satisfy him, and it was really starting to stress him out. In an attempt to distract himself from these thoughts, he looked again at the marks on his arm, tracing the picture of the dog, and then his attempt at starting a conversation,  
“Hey, i’m Romeo”  
But to his surprise, there was a new mark, one he didn’t recognise, one that wasn’t there before,   
“Hello?” Scrambling through his bag, desperate to find a working pen, he pulled out a pink Biro he didn’t even knew he owned, and scribbled down something resembling his phone number, he didn’t want his first conversation with his soulmate to be able to be rubbed off and washed away so easily. While he waited for a text to come through, he ran home, and raced up to his bedroom, ignoring the stares he was getting from his siblings, to charge his phone so that they could talk all night.  
While he was getting a drink upstairs his phone received a text from an unknown number, saying the same thing as what was written on his arm,  
“Hello?” Romeo took the steps 2 at a time to reply as quickly as possible, but as soon as he got to his phone, his mind went blank and he started over thinking about what to say, if he just said “hey” would that turn the conversation into a simple, boring, every day conversation? If he started talking about his day would he come off too pushy? Is “Hello” too formal? Is “Hi” too informal?  
After 30 seconds of internal debate, he decided to just say “Hey” and wait for a reply. When one came not 10 seconds later saying “Is this Romeo?”, he decided to not hold back and started asking every question he had, and by the end of the night he knew that his soulmate was nicknamed “Specs”, went to college in Manhattan, not too far away from where he was, Brooklyn, that he was a dance major, among other things. They had settles on a meeting place, the Brooklyn bridge, in two days, and Romeo was already stressing out on what to wear and what to bring.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks for reading, give me a follow over on tumblr! @hereshowitgoesoncewewin


	3. Chapter 3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Davey moves away and some unrequited Ralbert!

David was always very cautious about what he wrote on his arms. He didn’t want his soulmate or any of their friends finding out personal things about himself, at least until he found out who his soulmate was anyway. After all, there have been some very rare occasions where the soulmates don’t work out, so the less his soulmate knew, the better. Although the probability of him and his soulmate not working out was small, he didn’t want to take any chances.   
He was about to move to a new college, where he could actually major in the subject he wanted to major in, unlike his previous college, where he had been taking politics. Another reason he was going to this particular college is that Sarah’s soulmate is there, and it would give his older sister an excuse to visit her without their slightly homophobic parents finding out. Besides, this way, he is sort of guaranteed someone to talk to on the first day.   
It may seem weird to some people as to why he was moving so far away just to go to college, but he had a relative there he would be staying with, and it was one of the few colleges in New York that offered zoology as a course. So, here he is, staring at his now empty room, in his childhood home, as his mother is in the car, already full to the brim with all of David’s stuff, excited to move away from the small town he lived in. Granted, he was incredibly nervous about moving to New York, he’d never actually been to the city before, and about living with his Aunt, but she was pretty cool so it should be fine.  
David’s Aunt was also a foster carer, and although she usually has 4-5 children in her care on average, she only has 1 at the moment, therefore agreeing to take David under her wing straight away. Her current foster child is a boy David’s age who’s name he couldn’t quite remember at the moment, but he was just praying to god that he wasn’t the annoying, party all-night type of guy.   
Too late to turn back now, he got into the car with his Mother after doing another check to make sure he had remembered everything, and started the 3 hour drive to Manhattan. 

From the age of about 9, Albert was convinced Race was his soulmate. They did everything together, they were practically joined at the hip. So when Race excitedly ran up to him when they were 13 during lunch proclaiming that the badly drawn cat on his arm wasn’t there at break, and that he didn’t draw it, Albert was heartbroken. He was tempted to try and copy that cat onto the same part of his arm and convince race that they were soulmates, but he knew he wouldn’t be able to get it exact, besides, Race would never believe him.   
Every day since then, it takes everything he has not to stare at the new marks on Race’s skin and cry. Cry at the thought that there is someone out there, who will have Race for the rest of their lives, and they don’t even know it yet. Every time Race complains to him over Face Time that his soulmate should hurry up and write back, Albert has to bite his lip to stop himself saying that Race should be dating him instead of pining over his soulmate who he doesn’t even know yet.   
He knows it’s unhealthy, that he should just move on and focus on the fact that he has a soulmate somewhere as well, but it’s so difficult to so that when the person who you’ve convinced yourself is your soulmate, is your best friend.  
It didn’t help that Race was a very touchy-feely person. When greeting you he’ll put his arm around you and keep it there until you move it. And when he’s tired, god, when he’s tired he becomes the most clingy person ever. Once, he made Albert carry him bridal style up the stairs then proceeded to whine until Albert cuddled him, claiming he was cold.   
Regardless of his feelings, he’s rather be Race’s best friend than a stranger. So when Race called him for their daily Face Time, he waited precisely 3 rings before picking up the phone.   
“Hey Race!” Albert greeted, smiling into the camera as Race’s face popped up onto the screen, at a terrible angle as always.  
“Hey Albo”  
“I told you not to call me that” Albert whined, even though his heart flipped at the nickname  
“Why not? It’s cute” Albert fought back a blush at being called cute, and decided to change the topic while he was still thinking straight.  
“What do you think the new kids gonna be like?”  
“Hopefully not an ass, we don’t need another asshole in the school”  
“Speaking of assholes, my Dad’s coming back from his trip in a week so I may not be able to make the game night for a few weeks” There was nothing wrong with Albert’s dad, in fact he was actually great, but he was very cautious about letting Albert do anything other school, his mum on the other actively encourages Albert to leave the house as much as possible.  
“Ah just tell him you’ll be studying with me or something”  
“He knows you Race, he knows you don’t study on a Friday night”  
“What does he thinks gonna happen to you, the worst that’s ever happened is that Jack and Specs had a fight over who won mario kart, even that ended in them calling it a draw”  
“I don’t know, Race, he’s just protective alright, i’ll try to come to as many as possible”  
“You know it’s not the same without you there Albo”  
“Stop it” Race just laughed at that before continuing the conversation.  
Albert couldn’t remember when they stopped talking but they both fell asleep during the call, this happened quite often so he wasn’t surprised when he woke up in the morning and seeing Race asleep on the other end of the phone. Trying to stare at the sight of him asleep, he quickly ended the call and started to get ready for the rest of the day.


	4. Chapter 4

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Davey and Jack meet

It was the worst time for David to start seeing his soulmate marks. He was stuck in a car with his Mum for another 2 hours and didn’t have a pen to write back. At first he thought it was a trick of the light, that he imagined a green line across the palm of his hand, but then a blue line came above, shortly after, a yellow semicircle. It wasn’t until the picture resembled a sunset that David realised what this meant. He could see the marks. This wasn’t a rare thing, after all he is 17, the majority of kids his age could already see them. But even so, he tugged the sleeve of his jumper down over his palm as subtly as he could so his Mum didn’t notice.   
He longed to have another look. Craving to see if they had added more detail to the picture, but didn’t want to risk his Mum seeing, this was private, so he resigned to waiting until he got to his Aunt’s. This was going to be a long car drive. 

Jack was painting on his hand before he even realised what he was doing. He was supposed to be studying for his maths test coming up but all he could think about was that there was going to be another kid in the house. At least it was going to be a boy his age. He thought back to previous foster homes where he had to share with 5 and 6 year olds, that was a nightmare. When he looked at his palm properly, he realised he had subconsciously drawn a sunset. That was his favourite thing to draw, the end of the day, the time when there was nothing going on around him, where he could sit at his window and paint in peace. Before he came to Medda Larkin’s house he had never had his own room, at the children’s home he had to share with this boy called Charlie who preferred the nickname Crutchie, he was in foster care when his parents threw him out onto the streets instead of paying for medical care, hence the crutches. And at previous homes there was always someone who needed to use his room for something. It was a privilege he never had and he was determined to not take it for granted.   
His mind started to wonder, and he found himself thinking about Crutchie. When Jack got put into a foster home, he lost touch with Crutchie, though Jack had been trying ever since to find him again. He found him on FaceBook once and sent a friend request, but Crutchie either doesn’t use FaceBook, or doesn’t want to be Jack’s friend because he never accepted it.   
“Jack, would ya come down here and help me finish setting up David’s room?” Although it was phrased as a question, he obviously didn’t have a choice, Jack didn’t mind, Medda was definitely the best foster carer he had ever had, and maybe by setting up David’s room he could have a conversation starter when he got here.   
“Coming Medda” Quickly cleaning up the paints so that they didn’t dry out, Jack made his way to the room next to his, and noted that it looked extremely bare,maybe with David’s permission he could paint a mural or something on his wall, like the one above his own bed in his room.   
“Now, hopefully David’s gonna bring some stuff to help decorate with because the only teenage boy stuff in this house is yours and I don’t think you’d want to give that away”  
“Eh, I have some pretty terrible Christmas presents he can have” He had a collection under his bed of what people had given him. Most were from little kids in the children’s homes, although some were from past foster carers.   
“If you don’t want them I highly doubt David would, do you think you’d be able to put up that chest of draws over there, the instructions are in the bag to the left, while I finish the wardrobe, thanks” Jack sat down in front of the pile of wood, disregarding the instructions, determined to not have to use them.  
Half an hour, and a lot of swearing in his head so Medda wouldn’t here, later, Jack finally pulled out the instructions and finished it in 7 minutes flat.   
Medda looked at the clock on the wall before stating that “David’s gonna be here soon if you wanna get dressed to make a good first impression”  
Jack looked down at his paint stained attire and came to the conclusion that maybe he should get changed before meeting the person he’s going to have to live with for the next year at least. 

Five minutes until he get to his Aunt’s.  
Four minutes until he can look at his soulmate mark again.  
Three minutes until he meets his new housemate.  
Two minutes until he can get out of this car.  
Oh god, one minute until he’s there, why is he so nervous? He’s met his Aunt before, maybe he’d never met Jack, but Medda had spoken highly of him, so why was he so scared?  
They pulled up outside of an average looking house, slightly bigger than the one he had at home, but huge compared to the other houses he’d seen on his small tour of Manhattan, and David just stared.  
“Are you planning on getting out any time soon, or?” His Mum prompted.  
“Er, right, yeah” David got out of the car and went to get his bags out of the boot, leaving his Mum to great Medda and Jack.  
Standing at the door, looking as cheerful as ever was his Aunt, who he hadn’t seen in roughly 3 months. She gave him a hug, and over her shoulder he could see a boy his age, Jack he assumed, wearing loose fitting jeans and a slightly paint stained T-shirt, looking very out of place and awkward.   
“David, this is Jack, Jack this is David”  
“Nice to meet ya Davey” David was taken aback by the nickname, only Sarah called him Davey, and as far as he was aware Sarah had only spoken about him to Katherine, unless, it clicked in his mind that Katherine must be friends with Jack.   
“Uh yeah, hey, nice to meet you too”   
“Jack, why don’t you show David to his room while I sort out his stuff” Medda eyed all the bags David had brought with him. Suddenly he blushed thinking that maybe he had brought too much stuff.  
“Sure thing, come on Davey” David picked up a few bags of clothes and followed Jack up the stairs, grateful that he seemed pleasant enough.


	5. Chapter 5

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Sprace first kiss

Spot doodles on his arm when he knows no one is looking. He’ll deny it for the rest of his life if anyone points it out, but he finds it relaxing. They are not particularly good doodles, he was no artist, but either way he was proud of them sometimes. If someone he didn’t know well pointed them out he would just blame it on his soulmate, then would most likely threaten them if they decided to push the subject. Spot wasn’t an aggressive guy, despite what others would tell you, he just figured out a long time ago that if you wanted to be alone, just look like a bad guy, that’ll scare most people away. It worked in the children’s home, he was allowed to keep to himself most of the time, and he just got into the habit of having a resting bitch face. It wasn’t his fault. Besides, it came in handy. Like when it was rush hour in the hallways and he was late for class. Or if he just wanted to get his lunch. So, regardless of what people think, he was actually a pretty nice guy, once you managed to break down his walls, which, admittedly, was hard.   
He was currently in the middle of drawing a particularly bad drawing of a dog on his left hand, waiting for his last period English lesson to be over. He worked in a Café near his care home after schools on Monday, Wednesday, and Thursday, so he knew he couldn’t go straight home after this but at least he would be out if school.  
When the bell finally rung, he packed his bag and walked towards the high street that the Café was located. He only did a 2 hour shift on Thursday’s so he never bothered bringing any money with him to buy snacks, but noticing that the Café was busier than usual today, he instantly regretted that, knowing that he would probably be asked to overtime, and he really couldn’t afford to turn it down. Nevertheless, he walked in, signed his name on the make shift sign in sheet at the back, and pulled on his apron. As he walked behind the counter his co-worker Mush greeted him with a head nod before going back to work. Today was busy, they couldn’t afford to slack and waste time talking to each other.   
He got straight to work switching between taking orders and cleaning tables, and before he knew it the café was almost empty and he only had 10 minutes left of his shift. Just as he was about to go to the back to clean up and sign out, the bell rung signifying a customer, he turned and was met with a short, blond curly haired boy, whom he had never seen before. Spot found himself staring at him, it had nothing to do with his smile that seemed way to bright for a bleak Thursday, or the fact that he was wearing a tank top that showed off his biceps that were way too defined to belong to someone that cute, or his hair that made Spot want to run his hands through, wait, what. No way was he thinking about kissing this guy, he just walked through the door. Regardless, that wasn’t why Spot was staring, no, he was staring because of something on the back of his left hand. Something that looked way too similar to what Spot has on his. As the cute boy walked closer, Spot could tell, that, yes, that was definitely what he had drawn. But rather than tell him, Spot decided to ignore it, sticking to his original plan for his life, don’t get involved with soulmates. The hot (Spot had decided that he probably hotter than he was cute, not that that helped at all) boy ordered his coffee without even noticing Spot and just walked straight out afterwards, still with that idiotic smile on his face.   
For some reason, throughout the short walk back home, he couldn’t get that hot boy out of his head.   
And in bed, all he was thinking about was that boy. And then again at college the next day, he just wouldn’t leave his head. He tried in vein to look for him at college before resigning that he definitely doesn’t go here.   
In an attempt to get this guy out of his head he did what he usually did when he was bored, or stressed, or anxious, hooked up. He never hooked up with the same person twice, that just caused feelings, and feelings caused unnecessary drama that he just didn’t want to deal with. He wasn’t exactly short of options of who he wanted to hook up with. Although he had a reputation of never sleeping with the same person twice, people were still adamant that they could change that, but Spot thought that very unlikely, since the only thing Spot liked about these people was their bodies, and that didn’t exactly make for the start of a healthy relationship. He never caught feelings during this, and he didn’t care if the other person did because they knew what they were getting themselves into before they had sex, he never tried to lead the person on, it was their fault if they got attached. So why couldn’t he get this boy out of his head. Even after what he had to admit was pretty good sex, he was still unsatisfied because of this bloody hot boy who just so happens to be Spot’s soulmate.   
He kept thinking he saw the boy everywhere. The blond guy walking down the street. The guy wearing the tank top who didn’t even have curly hair for goodness sake. So when he actually saw hot guy again, a few weeks after their first meeting he refused to believe it, but when he was convinced that yes, this is the same hot person who I’ve been practically dreaming about these past few days, he walked over to him before he had the chance to even think about what he was doing. 

Race was just sat on a park bench, still wondering about his blasted soulmate. He had convinced himself that that guy in the Café couldn’t have been his soulmate and that what he thought was a dog must have been a trick of the light or something, because, wouldn’t he have said something? Race’s marks weren’t exactly hidden that day? They were on plain sight for anyone to see. Maybe his soulmate lived in Australia or something and he would never get to see them.  
Race noticed the Café guy and didn’t realise he was staring until he looked back. Race, quickly turning away, was desperately trying to hide his blush, why was he blushing? He didn’t even know this guy? So then why was he walking over here?  
Standing up to try and introduce himself, Race got out a stuttered   
“Can I help you?”  
Before café guy had his hands cupped around his face and his lips on his. Startled, Race just froze, this random guy had just started kissing him in the middle of the park, who did he think he was? But then again, he did think he was his soulmate right? Maybe he was just really shy? He pulled away before Race had the chance to kiss back and started mumbling something that resembled an apology.

Spot wasn’t in control of his actions. Before he knew, he had walked over to hot guy, held his face in his hands and kissed him with everything he had. When it seemed like he wasn’t going to kiss back, Spot pulled away and was met with a very confused face. Fuck, Spot thought, he looked way too cute like that. Realising that maybe he should give an explanation for what he had just done Spot mumbled something that even he didn’t really understand.  
“What?”  
“Uh, hi, I’m Spot and you came into my café, well it isn’t really my café, just one that I work in, but you came in a few weeks ago and I noticed that you had a dog on your hand, well not an actual dog that would be weird but a drawing of one and I realised that I had drawn that on my hand earlier in the day and somehow you had the same one and-“  
“Slow down, Spot was it? Hi I’m Race, and uh, I noticed that dog as well”  
“Race? What kinda name is that”  
“hey, you’re one to talk, Spot? Sounds like a dog’s name” Race, Spot had learned his name, although he still preferred hot guy, suited him better, was just as much of an asshole as Spot was.  
“Shut up and yeah, anyway, were kinda soulmates, and I’m sorry for that whole kissing thing I didn’t really know what to do it didn’t f-“Race cut him off with a kiss, his arms resting around his neck. This one was softer than the last one, and with both parties participating, it was so much better. Spot suddenly forgot why he was so against the whole soulmates, this feels amazing, but it did dawn on him that they are making out in a public park. When he broke away he was met with a small whimper from Race at the loss of contact, but when he pointed out where they were, Race pointed out that they should go back to his house, his family weren’t home, and they could learn more about each other, as well as do more than just kissing. Normally Spot’s mind would automatically jump straight to sex, but he was shocked to find that the thing he wanted to do most was run his fingers through Race’s hair, just to know what it feels like, to see if it is as soft as he thought it was. Suddenly, he was itching to go to Race’s, and started pulling him before realising that he didn’t actually know where he was going. Race just laughed that stupid laugh that sent butterflies into a frenzy in his stomach and let him pull him along.


	6. Chapter 6

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Specs and Romeo have their date

omeo had memorised everything he knew about his soulmate. He wanted to have as many conversation starters as possible meaning that the conversation could never run dry. Although the original plan was for him and Specs to meet at the Brooklyn bridge and to then just wander around Brooklyn for a while and see where the day would take them, he wanted this to be special so he planned a for them start the day off how they had planned, but for them to go to the cute Café a few blocks away that Romeo always used to go to as a child with his parents. Although he hasn’t been in a while, he remembers it being a small, family run business, that is always decorated with flowers and fairy lights, and has a very welcoming feeling. He’s just hoping it is still there.   
After many hours of consideration, Romeo concluded that bringing a present would be too fast and forward considering they have never actually met before. He opted for opening with a cheesy pick up line instead. Hey, you’ve got to show your personality on a first date. Was this a date? He thought it was, but they had never specified. For all he knew, Specs could be treating it like a casual meet up and wasn’t fretting over the smallest things, like if they held hands but Romeo’s was too sweaty because he was nervous. Or if he didn’t turn up at all. No, stop thinking like that, of course he’ll turn up, we’re soulmates, he has to. Right? Romeo got there early.   
They said they would get there for 12 o’clock but he was too anxious to wait any longer so he left at 11:30 despite the fact that it took him 5 minutes to walk there. And obviously he was worrying that Specs wasn’t coming, or that he had got the wrong date, or the wrong time, or the wrong place, or all three. To try and calm himself he stared over the side and just watched the ripples of the water, and the trail that boats left behind and tried to forget that soon he would meet the person he was supposed to share the rest of his life with.

Specs was terrified. Two days ago he didn’t know who this person was, and now he’s meeting them in Brooklyn, a place he rarely goes. It’s not like he doesn’t think Brooklyn is a nice place to go, but he doesn’t know anyone and doesn’t know where the nice places to go are. That’s why he agreed to meet Romeo on the bridge, that way he’d be closer to Manhattan if he wanted out. Not that he thought he would want to leave, he just needed a backup plan.   
While making the trek over to Brooklyn, he tried to think of something, anything, to say to Romeo. Should he start with a simple ‘hello’, or talk about the weather, or compliment him, he just didn’t no, Specs wasn’t very good at flirting, especially when he’d never met them and knew almost nothing about their personality. Failing at thinking of a conversation, he resorted to day dreaming about what he would look like. At least he knew it was boy, that was something that had tormented him for years, not knowing the gender, it made it very difficult to plan anything to do with your life when they could be anyone on Earth.   
Being relatively tall himself, he was kind of wishing that Romeo would be short, if not, at least not taller than him, he didn’t need another thing to be insecure about. He couldn’t picture him, whenever he tried to think of what he would like his soulmate to look like, his mind was either completely blank, or just providing him with the image of his old crush whom he had pined over for the last 4 years of his life, he knew it wouldn’t be him, he moved to England.   
Checking google maps on his phone, it estimated that it would take him another 10 minutes to walk there, each step made his palms sweatier and his head more clouded. Why was he so nervous? It’s not like he hasn’t been on dates before, granted he’d never been on a blind date before but still, he should be calm, even if he was a terrible flirt, and bad at holding conversations, and has a tendency to be extremely awkward around hot people, and okay maybe he should be a little nervous.   
5 minutes before he was due to get there it was only 11:45 so he stopped off at a bakery to get two cupcakes, praying to any god out there that Romeo wasn’t allergic to anything.  
He approached the Brooklyn bridge at exactly 11:57, and realised the fatal flaw in their plan. They had no idea what each other looked like. He quickly texted Romeo to say that he is here and began narrowing down his options as to who his soulmate was.  
A woman with 2 children - not his soulmate  
Old man - no  
25? year old man - maybe, but hopefully not  
He got a text back from Romeo within 30 seconds saying to meet him directly at the middle. The 20 seconds it took to walk to the middle was agonising, each step filled him with adrenaline, and he barely noticed when he bumped into a boy around his age. The boy whipped his head around as if expecting someone and without a second thought asked if his name was Specs. Specs had replied before giving his brain time to think. This was a lot to process and he just stood there looking at this boy frozen.   
He’s short, that’s good, very short in fact, even better. And very good-looking. Black hair matched with dazzling green eyes that had golden flecks in them, Specs noticed. He was pulled out of his daze by Romeo speaking the worst pick-up line in the history of pick-up lines.  
‘Will you be the Juliet to my Romeo?’ Romeo grinned up at Specs as if he had just said the ultimate pick-up, Specs couldn’t help but smile at him, his grin was infectious.   
‘Only if you agree to never use that line again’ he laughed  
‘I can’t make any promises, but for you, i’ll try’

They spent the afternoon walking around Brooklyn with Romeo insisting on giving him a tour on everything that they saw. Specs suddenly remembered the cupcakes he had brought and sheepishly brought them out of his bag.  
‘I hope you’re not allergic’ he was blushing slightly now,although he wasn’t quite sure why.  
‘You didn’t need to get these, what flavour are they?’  
‘Chocolate, they looked the best’  
‘My favourite, thank you’ Romeo stood up on his tip-toes and kissed Specs on the cheek. Specs was blushing furiously now and managed to stutter out a small ‘you’re welcome’ accompanied with something that resembled ‘it was nothing’.   
Romeo insisted that he had a destination in mind, and took them to a small cafe that looked like something out of a tumblr post. Everything was decorated and there were vases of flowers on each table. Romeo bought them both a coffee, ignoring Specs’ insistence that he can pay for it - ‘you bought me a cupcake’ - and proceeded to ask him about everything that is going on in his life, from his siblings to his dream holiday, and where he stood on pineapples on pizza.   
The cafe closed at 5:30 and they realised that they had been sat there for over two hours and it was starting to get dark. Because Specs had a 45 minute walk back to Manhattan they wasted no time leaving, Romeo not wanting him to have to walk home in the dark.   
Romeo led him back to the Brooklyn bridge, where they stood in an awkward silence, not knowing whether they were going to kiss or hug or just say goodbye. It was romeo who made the first move, asking to see him again this weekend. After their plans where arranged Romeo seemed to have lost all confidence, he said goodbye and began to turn around to walk the other way. Specs, refusing to leave this date without finishing it, shouted ‘wait!’, and holding Romeo hand to turn his the other way around, proceeded to kiss him squarely on the lips. Butterflies erupted in his stomach and he had to force himself not to smile too wide, not wanting to break up the kiss.   
They broke apart after what felt like hours, but what was in reality about a minute, short of breathe.   
‘See you Saturday’ Specs walked off cautious of every step, fully aware that Romeo was still looking at him. He had a stupid grin on his face the whole walk back, oblivious to the fact that Romeo was sporting the same smile throughout the rest of the night as well.


	7. Chapter 7

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Just a really short Javid chapter

As Davey followed Jack upstairs through the house he had only visited one or two times, he couldn’t help but notice little things about him.   
Like the way each item of clothing had a different paint stain on it. Or the way he tapped him fingers on everything he passed. Or the way he seemed to have a smile etched permanently onto his face. And although Davey would never admit it out loud, the way Jack’s arm muscles pushed against a slightly too tight T-shirt. Or the way his hair seamlessly flopped over his face in a way that was too attractive.   
Silently thanking god that he wasn’t sharing a room with Jack, Davey put down his suitcases and studied the room that would be his for the next year. It was about the same size as his at home and had plain blue painted walls. So far it only had a bed, a wardrobe, and a chest of draws, and Davey didn’t have a lot to add to that at the moment so he guessed his room would look pretty bare for a while.   
Jack was the first to break the silence between them   
‘So I know the walls are a bit bare at the moment but Medda let me paint a mural on mine and if you wanted to you could paint one on yours, you could borrow my paints if ya like’  
'No thanks, I’m not the best painter in the world’ Davey replied honestly, he once tried to draw for an art project 4 years ago and got the only F he had ever gotten in his life.   
'Well I could do it if ya want, but I understand if you’d rather keep it clean’ Jack was looking directly into Davey’s eyes and it was making him a little uncomfortable, although he wasn’t sure he wanted Jack to look away.   
'Can I have a look at yours?’ Davey asked cautiously, not wanting to pry, but wanting to know if the guy he was going to let paint his walls was any good.  
'Yeah sure, my rooms a bit of a mess at the moment so sorry about that, try not to stand on any paints, they are a pain to get out of clothes, as you can see’ Jack gestured vaguely to his paint stained outfit, still with that smile on his face.  
Jack was not exaggerating when he said his room was a mess. Although it wasn’t messy because of clothes or food or anything you’d expect, it was messy because everywhere you look there was either a pot of paints, or a canvas, or something with a drawing on. Anything remotely related to art was on his floor. But one thing struck his eye, there was a painting on the wall above his bed. It looked like a painting of a town or village in a forest at sunset, it was breathtaking to say the least.   
'Wow, you’re really good’ Davey was suddenly really insecure about his artistic abilities.   
'Ah it’s not that great, it’s just a bunch of trees’ Jack was being modest, it was obvious but Davey didn’t know how to go about convincing Jack he was good. Luckily he didn’t to, Jack changed the subject easily enough.   
'So I hear Sarah’s coming up in a few days to see you’   
'Yeah that’s her excuse anyway she really just wants- wait how do you know that?’   
'I’m friend with Kath, Sarah’s soulmate’ Jack answered, as if it was obvious.  
'Oh right yeah, well the only reason she’s coming up is because of Kath’ Davey stated, it was true, he didn’t think she would have minded if she didn’t see Davey for a whole year, but that’s not what their parents think so Davey just played along with the whole 'I’ll miss my sibling’ thing.   
Jack and Davey talked for a while longer about college and majors and life in general before Medda called them down to eat, and before Davey knew it he was going to sleep, not ready at all for college the next morning. But hey, at least he has a friend to go with.

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks for reading! My tumblr is @hereshowitgoesoncewewin aswell, send me an ask or prompt over there!


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